A 7-year-old boy recovering after being shot inside his family’s home on Chicago’s Far South Side is being called "a walking miracle," his family told NBC Chicago shortly after his release from the hospital.
Zayden Garrett was released from the hospital Tuesday and is making tremendous progress, according to his family. His grandmother told NBC Chicago they didn’t think he was going to make it.
“They all called him a walking miracle. Trying to figure out what’s going on,” said his grandmother Rosie Liggins. “I told them nothing, but God.”
The second grader is obsessed with Spiderman, rocking the superhero from head to toe, and very eager to get back to school.
“I miss my friends and my teachers,” he said. “I like to do math.”
It was more than a week ago when police say a gunman fired shots into his family’s home near 116th Street and Yale Avenue. Zayden was shot along with his uncle.
“Bullets flying all through your house, you’re seeing nothing, but smoke and dust because its bullets through the window through the walls everywhere,” said Liggins.
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Pictures shared with NBC Chicago showed the aftermath inside. His grandmother described a horror movie as five other children in the house ducked and ran for cover.
“His brother saw him on the ground, his brother,” she recalled. “He was actually the one that was running and saying, 'Grandma, they killed my brother. They killed my brother.”
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Zayden underwent two surgeries at Comer Children’s Hospital as doctors attempted to remove the bullet that damaged a part of his left lung.
“I asked him, 'Do you know what happened to you?' He said, 'Yeah, grandma I got shot,'” she said. “I said, 'Are you okay?' He said, 'Yeah, I’m fine.' I said, 'Are you scared?' He said 'No, I’m good.'”
While fragments still remain in his body, Zayden showed off his strength by doing pushups Thursday, but his grandmother knows he and his twin brother will need counseling down the road.
“I’m going to do whatever it is that I need to do to make sure that he doesn’t have to return to that nightmare,” she said.
Her family started a GoFundme to support him and their journey to find a new home as police search for the gunman.
“God has gotten me through this with him and I know he’s going to give him the justice that he deserves,” she said.
When asked if Zayden had a message to Chicagoans he said, “Thank you for praying for me.”
Liggins said the plan is for her grandson to go back to school in January. His uncle has since been treated and released from the hospital.
Family members believe there were two shooters, but Area Two detectives are still investigating.
